Conventionally, common analog wristwatches are configured with a dial 11 provided within a watch case 10, and a display window member 12 formed of a single piece of glass or the like is on the front side of the dial 11, as shown in FIG. 14 and FIG. 15. A through hole is formed in the center of the dial 11, and a main needle driving portion 13 protrudes through this through hole from the movement stored within the watch case 10. Attached to this main needle driving portion 13 are an hour hand 14 and minute hand 15. Also, a plurality of through holes are further formed around the through hole in the dial 11, from which through holes protrude a plurality of sub-needle driving portions 16, with needles 17 attached to each. Further, the dial 11 is designed so that sub-indicating areas 11a, 11b, and 11c formed according to the needles 17 can be distinguished from other portions of the dial 11, by means of printing or the like. Incidentally, an open window 11d is formed on the dial 11, so as to allow viewing of the day indicator (or date indicator) through this open window 11d.
With the above analog wristwatch, the dial 11, window member 12, main needle driving portion 13, hour hand 14, minute hand 15, sub-needle driving portions 16, needles 17, etc., comprise a display portion. The dial 11, main needle driving portion 13, hour hand 14, and minute hand 15 comprise a time display system which allows one to read the time-of-day from the marks or numbers displayed on the periphery of the dial 11 positioned on the display area of the hour hand 14 and minute hand 15. In this case, the sub-display system comprised of the sub-needle driving portions 16 and needles 17 are provided with separate needles for displaying only one of the hour hand, minute hand, or second hand, or, needles for displaying other values such as time other than time-of-day, water pressure, air pressure, temperature, humidity, and so forth, so as to display information which is part of the time display system or other information. Watches which have such a sub-display system are called multi-functional wristwatches, and can be used in various ways other than conventional display of the time of day.
The sub-indicating area of the sub-display system in such multi-functional wristwatches is generally positioned within the time-of-day indicating area which is the range of movement of the needles of the time display system (hour hand 14, minute hand 15) in an overlaid manner, so that the time-of-day indicating area of the time-of-day display system and the sub-indicating area of the sub-display system overlap in a plane. That is, the time-of-day display system is generally connected at the center of the disk-shaped dial 11 comprising the display portion, with needles extending in the periphery of the dial, so that the indicating area of the time-of-day display system encompasses almost the entirety of the display portion. On the other hand, the sub-display system is connected at a portion other than the center of the dial, and has a small sub-indicating area included in the time-of-day indicating area which makes display with needles much shorter than the radius of the dial.
Now, a stopwatch is a type of the above-described watch, and in the case of a stopwatch, a time display system is provided instead of a time-of-day display system. The phrase "time display system" will hereafter be used as a concept including both the time-of-day display system and time display system.
However, with such multi-functional wristwatches, the indicating area of the time-of-day display system which encompasses almost the entirety of the display portion, and the sub-display system are positioned so as to overlap in a plane, meaning that the needles of the time display system and the sub-indicating area of the sub-display system visually overlap, which is problematic since the display becomes difficult to read.
Also, the time display system and sub-display system are positioned overlapping on the display portion, giving an overall impression of the display portion being complicated, and major changes in design cannot be made.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the objects thereof are to provide a new time piece, comprising a time piece which has a time display system and a sub-display system such as with a multi-functional watch, having a display portion wherein ease of reading is facilitated and design not giving a complicated impression can be made.